Today, our ministry was to clean.
Not too difficult, right?
There is one big area that we had to sweep, because trash
always blows into it. There is another room connected to it, where they keep
all of the chairs, and there is also a few bathrooms in it. I noticed that
everyone had already taken the other jobs, and the only thing left was to clean
the bathroom.
My original plan was to grab a broom, and sweep with the
others, even though there were clearly enough people sweeping already. It was
just easier, and I wouldn’t have to do any dirty work that way….but God was
convicting me to do otherwise.
Nothing disgusts me more than wet, dirty tiles. I have
always been disgusted by them. Example; Gym locker rooms. You will never see me
walk barefoot in a gym locker room. The public showers in gyms; I would only
use one if I had to, and if I did, I would be sure to wear flip flops.
The bathrooms that needed to be cleaned in the church, just
so happened to smell like human feces, all of the toilets had not been flushed,
and the tiles were wet, dirty, and disgusting.
After about an hour, Jon, James and I had the toilets
cleaned, and the floor bleached and mopped. Needless to say I was miserable the
whole time.
I figured I would leave feeling a sense of accomplishment,
but I didn’t at all. I just felt disgusting, and ready for a shower. I still
get irritable just thinking about it. Why did I feel convicted to clean the
toilets? I have no idea. What did I learn from this experience? I’m not
sure…. But, the whole time I was
cleaning, I was thinking about the verse in the bible, 1 Corinthians 10:31 So
whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
This verse implies that literally everything we do, should
be done for the glory of God. If God swung by my house one day and asked to use
my bathroom, I sure as heck wouldn’t want it looking like that!
This is our last week, here in the Philippines. It’s going
to be sad leaving, but as always, I’m excited for next month’s adventures. Next
month, I am not allowed to share my location, and am also not allowed to use
the internet, so there will be no blogs posted. If you have any questions,
email me or facebook me. Talk to you all in April! J
